Random thoughts

1. It's weird how much more responsible I've become since becoming a mom. And how much I'm capable of doing that I never dreamed I'd be able to pull off, pre-mommyness. My house is clean. My husband is happily ensconced in a LAN party. My baby is sleeping in his crib, which he was put into on time and with no fuss. I know what's happening this next week in far more detail than I ever did pre-Willex. I'm clean (it took a while to remember to shower regularly after he was born. Don't laugh). And I'm more at peace with my world than I thought I could be right after my little guy was born.

2. It's time to start reading again. I'm fairly well-read, I like to think, but there's so much out there that I want to put into my head. So many worthy thoughts to occupy my mind, so little time (and money!).

3. Life ROCKS.

New visitors, please leave comments! Say hello!

Two visits from China and a visit from South Africa... and no comments from either... :(

I'm interested in knowing who visiting this blog, and why -- we have only a small handful of friends visiting, but a good number of people who I don't know stop by randomly. Let us know who you are, what your blog is, how you found us, etc... I'm too curious not to throw the invitation out there. Especially if you're not from the US. How did two people from China find our blog? I'll never know; they didn't leave any comments.

Also, if you're interested in seeing who visits your blog... I use http://www.statcounter.com/ 'cause it's free. Cara found it first though. You put an image on your page that tracks page visits. Every time the image is loaded, it has to go to statcounter to get it, so it's easy enough for them to see what country/city the requesting IP address is.

MEME

I usually don't do these (they smack of forwards to me, although I do enjoy reading ones that other people have filled out)-- but this is funny. You put "(your name) needs" and "(your name) is the most" into Google (don't forget the quotation marks!) and see what happens:
Denise needs:
a little love in her life
fame and glory
ignorance
to view Crunch Fat Burning Pilates and take some lessons
her mouth wired shut
prayers
to go to National Enquirer Anonymous
to shut mouth... a 747 could have flown in there

Denise is the most:
experienced woman civil mediator in the state of Indiana
awesome woman I've ever seen
wonderful woman in the world and fearless
worked and requested Madonna double ever
gorgeous woman alive
beautiful creation God has ever produced

Gadzooks! I've been turned into a Zombified Mutant Morning Coder!

Sorry to have to one-up Denise on the nerdality scale, but I just finished a coding project (at 4am) and caught a minimal amount of sleep. I enjoyed the project, too, despite the fact that I started work at 9am yesterday, took an hour lunch break and an hour dinner break and coded the rest of the day. Four hours of "pay me next week" work and 13 hours of "I sure hope this pays off in a couple years when I'm done with grad school" work. I was training a neural net.

I slept as long as I could after that -- until Will's "If you're happy and you know it" Plush Monkey of Incessant Electronic Noise(tm) summoned me to wakefulness. If you can call my current state wakeful, that is. I need a haircut (badly) and my eyes can't decide if they're going to crawl off my face and slowly roll their way back into bed. (That would be a bad idea, by the way, since Will would probably find them and try to chew on them.)

And Denise just notified me that she has a really bad stomachache. Whoo hoo! An Undead coder with a "feeling nearly-dead" wife! So I'm off to finish a couple other assignments and keep Will from screaming. Or chewing on my eyes, which I think are halfway down the hallway already.

Alright, folks.

This is COOL*: www.literature-map.com

Here's how it works: type in an author that you're fond of: J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Agatha Christie, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Robin McKinley, J.K. Rowling (all favorites of mine), whoever. Literature Map brings up a cloud around the author of other authors people are likely to enjoy if they enjoy the work of the person they typed in. The closer two names are to each other, the more likely you are to like one if you like the other. Make sense? And it actually works! I put in Tolkien. When it brought up the cloud, not only had I read a lot of the other authors, but they're very well related, and I like them (LOTS). If you're looking for something to read (Cara), this will definitely help. Andrea, what do you think? (Hat-tip: Jonah).
Other cool internet discovery: Lists of Bests. Credit to Cara on this one. Lists of Pulitzer winners, Caldecotts, and other categories. Just cool stuff! Especially for someone whose library is running thin on books she hasn't read a gazillion times:).

*How much of a nerd does it make me that I think this is one of the coolest things I've seen online in eons?

Footnote (for Harry Potter fans only): read this editorial. It'll take you forever, but it's interesting if you can survive the white-on-black font. And it's the only thing that's ever made me think that maybe, just maybe, Snape isn't, or at least wasn't, evil. Discuss!

Dreaming

I had this really bizarre dream last night. I woke up scared to death... but you'll laugh.
I dreamed that I was still single, and living in a boarding school for college students (not a dorm-- the people who lived with me in this place were the only students). And all this stuff was going on that I was supposed to help with, but I kept getting distracted, or forgetting, or coming up with excuses, and not doing anything that I was supposed to. People were disgusted with me. And when I tried to change nobody believed me. I think it comes from lingering guilt from not being able to take food to ward parties. Sigh. But when your baby's bed time is at 7:30, and the party starts at 7:00, I just can't bring food. I can't even go to the party! If only I would remember that when they send the sign-up sheets around...
Moving on... Eddie and Andrea are having a boy!! I'm so excited for them. Boys are cool, dude!!
Speaking of little boys, Will is coming along. He's learned to push himself up on his arms when laying on his stomach (he looks like he's doing baby push-ups), and when I went to get him up yesterday, he had his knees pulled up under him. That boy will be crawling before too long. He's also figured out how to grab the bar on his swing and stop himself. A 20-pound baby swinging on high generates a good bit of momentum, so I'm proud of my buff little baby. And he's learning to give high fives.
James gave me these two awesome books for Valentines day: A Blessing of Bread and More Words You Should Know: 1500 More Words Every Educated Person Should be Able to Use and Define. Both books are great fun. The bread book is a cookbook for Jewish bread (challah!!), and the word book is self-explanatory. So far I've known most of the words, although I finally learned what the heck absinthe is, and I didn't know that abominate (think abomination) was actually used as a verb. Word of the day: acme (yes, it is a real word outside of Wiley Coyote cartoons).

Mister Moose

Alex (James' brother) sent Will a stuffed moose (and us a money order! Thanks Bro!). Will LOVES that moose. Within 5 minutes, it has attained "most favored toy status". Here's a few pictures:

Pictures

I am so proud of some of these pictures. These are all from the Tanner building on campus.